LED backlight on x240 display triggering migraines

[alecs]

Recently I acquired a new-to-me x240 to replace my wonderful but slow x140e. The x240 is light, fast, good keyboard, etc. Except - the LED backlighting is killing my eyes. I've tried setting the dpi (linux mint) to 144, adjusted the brightness, blue light level, etc. In all cases, after 30 minutes my eyes dry out and migraine kicks in.

It seems that there is a percentage of the population which are not able to use screens with LED backlighting without suffering eye strain, headaches, etc. I've used many laptops and PCs over the past 30 years. The only time I've had this issue was with a new 2017 Samsung notebook 9, which triggered the same head pain. For comparison, I comfortably use the x140e for 6 - 8 hours at a stretch.

Questions:
What HD (or FHD) displays with CCFL backlighting fit the x240?
Do you have one or know where I could find one?

If there are no CCFL displays available that will work on this x240, what x-series Thinkpad would you recommend as a faster replacement to the x140e with good battery runtime (5-6 hours) and an HD CCFL display?

Any advice/help much appreciated.
Alec

[axur-delmeria]

Unfortunately, CCFL-backlit screens went out of fashion around 2010.
The last CCFL-backlit X series was the X200, but it's also available with a LED-backlit LCD.

Its CPU performance is decent (Core 2 Duo P8400 to P8700), but I'm not sure how well it compares to your X140e. What processor does it have?

Also, since I've never owned an X200 I cannot vouch for its battery runtime.

[w0qj]

Yeah, think LED backlighting for LCD is now the norm for most (if not all?) notebook manufacturers for a number of years now...

If you are working on a fixed desk environment, can you consider to use an external monitor instead (it may also use LED backlighting)?

[alecs]

The CPU on this x140e is an AMD A4-5000 APU with Radeon HD graphics x4.

This laptop was made in 2013, so it makes me wonder if there are at least some LED backlit screens which don't trigger the headaches. Is there any way to tell for certain whether or not the display on this x140e is LED or CCFL?

[jaspen-meyer]

Is there any way to tell for certain whether or not the display on this x140e is LED or CCFL?

Read the 'spec sheet' for your display. This program will tell you what model screen you have:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install dispcalgui

dispcalgui - Graphical user interface for the Argyll CMS.

For what it's worth, any time I change from a LED screen to a CCFL, or CCFL -> LED, my eyes hurt for the first few days.

[alecs]

Thanks jaspen-meyer, that is quite helpful. Glad that you have been able to adjust.

According to the output from DisplayCal3, the display on the x140e is M116NWR1 R3. This is a WLED screen. So that confirms that there are LED screens which are possible for me to use.

In this case of the x240 my eye-pain problem has not gone away. Others who struggle with similar issues with the LED backlit displays start discussing intel graphics, dithering, using NVIDIA cards to bypass the onboard GPU, etc, without any clear solutions. More than one person turns the display brightness up to 100%, disables all Intel display power saving features, and then uses sunglasses.

For various reasons I'm not willing to go that "Blues Brothers" route.


At this point I'm not sure what else to try.

[jaspen-meyer]

What screen is in the x240?

Have you tried changing the 'refresh rate' to 40Hz, 50Hz, 60Hz?

[alecs]

Will check the x240 later today and see if I can change the refresh rates from the linux mint "displays" control. Would not have thought to "drop" the refresh rate below 60hz... Interesting.

Edited: The only option for refresh rate is 60hz.

[jaspen-meyer]

We still don't know the model of the x240's screen.

[Dekks]

Try looking for the get-edid package.

get-edid > filename then parse-edid < filename

[alecs]

Sorry jaspen-meyer for not providing the model number.

For the x240:
DisplayCal3 reports: LP125WF2-SPB2 1920 x 1080
parse-edid:
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "
@"
ModelName "
@"
VendorName "LGD"
# Monitor Manufactured week 0 of 2013
# EDID version 1.4
# Digital Display
DisplaySize 280 160
Gamma 2.20
Option "DPMS" "false"
Modeline "Mode 0" 138.46 1920 1968 2000 2106 1080 1083 1088 1095 +hsync -vsync
EndSection



For the x140e:
DisplayCal3 reports: M116NWR1 R3 1366x768
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "
@"
ModelName "
@"
VendorName "IVO"
# Monitor Manufactured week 28 of 2011
# EDID version 1.3
# Digital Display
DisplaySize 260 140
Gamma 2.20
Option "DPMS" "false"
Modeline "Mode 0" 69.70 1366 1386 1406 1478 768 770 774 786 -hsync -vsync
EndSection

[matn__]

alecs,

Read about backlight pwm control. On windows i am using intelPWMcontrol to incerase frequency, but on linux are scripts.